A New Mughal Painting on Stuff

The Smithsonian InstitutionRegents of the University of Michigan

A New Mughal Painting on StuffAuthor(s): Basil GraySource: Ars Islamica, Vol. 4 (1937), pp. 459-461, 463-464Published by: Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the Historyof Art, University of MichiganStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25167052 .

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NOTES 459

no small part. It was he who changed the car

toon into tissue, indicating the design and color. The intentions of the painter of the cartoon

could not always be closely executed in a rug.

The material itself and the different conditions of weaving technique very often obliged the

weaver to changes in execution and in color

harmony. Therefore the place of the weaver in

creating such a work of art is in no way sec

ondary to that of the cartoonist, and they should

be considered as joint creators.

In his narration of the events in Persia dur

ing his stay there, Father Krusinski states:

"During the siege of Isfahan, when famine had

scattered the weavers, the art of a special method

of brocading silk tissues with silver thread . . .

was entirely lost. Nor is there any possi

bility, even in case some of the master-weavers

have survived or have been able to escape, that

this art could revive under the Afghans' rule,

who feel an aversion to objects of Persian cul

ture." (Krusinski, ibid., p. 220: Aspahani ob

sidionis tempore fame evectis artificibus, ars

ipsa speciali modo serico panno argentei fili in

ter texendi . . . totaliter interiit. Nee periculum,

si qui supervixerint artis magistri vel effugerint, ut ab Aghvanis, quibus Persicus cultus sordet,

resuscitetur.)

This interesting information confirms the date of decadence of the royal rug factories and

weaving shops in Isfahan during the siege of the capital in 1722. It was followed by the downfall of the greater part of other royal kar

kans situated in the different Persian provinces,

after the collapse of the Safawid dynasty. The royal karkans became disorganized, and

their work stopped. The flourishing epoch of

Persian rug-weaving, which had attained its

highest perfection in the silk rugs brocaded with

gold and silver thread, and which had begun under Shah 'Abbas I, perhaps even under Shah

Tamasp, closed with the downfall of the Safa wids. This art was not to revive again, and in

the eighteenth century the export of silk Persian

rugs into Poland came to its end.

Tadeuz Mankowski

A NEW MUGHAL PAINTING ON STUFF

Included among the choice collection of

Mughal paintings bequeathed in 1929 to Bed ford College for Women, a constituent part of

London University, by Lady Herringham, well known for her copies of the Ajanta frescoes, is a picture of considerable historical as well as

aesthetic value. It is a painting on stuff of a

procession of elephants, and in its present state

it measures 33 centimeters by 39 centimeters

(Fig. 1). The original dimensions were obviously greater: it has probably lost a considerable amount from the top, an inch or two from the

right side, and has been trimmed along the other two sides. In addition, it has suffered consider

ably from wear and apparently also from damp.

The present mounting, of no great age, is Indian,

perhaps of the late eighteenth century. Except for the head of the principal elephant the picture is free from retouching. In spite of all the dis

figurements it remains a fine painting thanks to

the strength of the composition and the brilliancy of the coloring.

The subject of the painting is evidently a

procession, not a hunting expedition but possibly a triumphal return from a military expedition; however, the principal figure, who is evidently the young prince acting as mahout to the central

elephant, is unarmed, and the incident is more

likely an ordinary progress by one of the Mughal princes. Of this figure unfortunately nothing remains but the original outline drawing, after

wards covered by the opaque paint. The features

are fairly clear.

Before attempting to identify the prince it would be as well to examine the rest of the paint

ing for evidence of the date at which it was pro

duced. The small turbans, the sleeveless tunic



46o NOTES

worn by the trumpeter in the foreground, the

long plain ends of the waist-sashes and the tails to the djame all point to the reign of Akbar.

The manner of wearing beards and moustaches

is also characteristic of this period. The closest

parallels will be found amongst the late, but not

the latest, miniatures of the reign, rather than in

the Hamza paintings with which at first sight it

would be natural to connect the picture on ac

count of its large size as well as the material on

which it is painted. In style there is little sign of Hindu influence

unless it be in the complete understanding of the

elephants. The swords in the hands of the figures on the right (Fig. 2) are the Hindu khadja with

blade slightly larger at the extremity, and with a

curved, not a pointed end. In the Hamza-Name

pages, nearly all of which show armed figures, swords of this type occur only three times. In

the South Kensington Akbar-Ndme they are

commoner, while in the Jaipur Razm-Name

(where of course the Hindu subject might have more influence) they are about as common as

the Persian curved and pointed sword. This last

manuscript was finished in 1588 a.o., and it is to

about this period that I should assign the present

painting.

We are now free to approach the problem of

the identity of the principal figure. Akbar's sons

Selim (Djahanglr) and Murad were born in

1569 and 1570 respectively. Curiously enough a

painting in the Berlin Museum representing a

prince breaking in a restive elephant, signed by Zain al-'Abidin, has been published by Sattar Kheiri (Indische Miniaturen der islamischen

Zeit, Berlin, n. d., PL 13) as a portrait of Prince

Murad. E. Kiihnel, who has republished it

(Bilderhefte der islamischen Kunstabteilung, Heft I, Indische Miniaturen, Berlin, 1933, PL

21) says nothing of the identity of the subject.

Presumably Murad's name is written on the

mount, and there is nothing in the painting

which would make this identification impossible,

although the miniature could hardly be quite contemporary. The style points to a date about

1600-1610, although Murad is represented as he

would have been about 1590. He died of drink in 1599, and this might be a memorial portrait.

The subject of the present painting does not

appear to be the same. It is therefore tempting to identify it as a portrait of Prince Selim at the

age of sixteen to eighteen. No other portrait of

the future emperor in youth is known to me, so

that identification must remain at present tenta

tive.

The occasion of the procession cannot of

course be guessed, but it has the form which seems to be typical of an imperial progress except for the absence of standards which would prob

ably only be carried before the Emperor himself. A much later painting at Vienna (J. Strzygowski, Asiatische Miniatur-Malerei, Klagenfurt, 1933,

PI. 9, Fig. 29) shows Shah Djahan mounted on an elephant, making a progress with armed men

on foot running in front and others mounted on

elephants and horses following in a serried line behind. On these occasions the approach of the

procession was heralded with music: in this pro

cession of Shah Djahan, by a man striking a

gong; in a famous miniature by Manohar, in the

Rampur State Library, of the period of Dja hangir, a whole band of musicians and singers on foot is shown taking part in such a proces

sion. In the present painting, in addition to the mounted trumpeter in the foreground, there are

two drums mounted on one of the elephants in

the line. Some traces of European influence are to be

detected in the modeling of some of the faces and in the foreshortening of a horse in the fore

ground on the right (Fig. 2). The coloring is

very rich; the dominant colors being vermilion

(characteristically foiled with crimson), a strong earth yellow, two blues, one very deep, green,

and purple. The ground is a whitish green and

considerable white is used. All the elephants are



NOTES 461

magnificently drawn, and the baby elephant adds a charming touch of naturalism. The composi

tion is vigorously conceived: the circular move

ment which it seems to follow in its main lines

being particularly characteristic of the period.

(Cf. a page from the Tarikh-i Alfl acquired by the British Museum in 1934 and published in

the Br. Mus. Quart., VIII, p. 149.)

Such a painting on stuff, like the famous House of Timur in the British Museum, seems

to look back to a time when the Mughal em

perors, like their Mongol ancestors, were always on campaign, and when such paintings might

decorate their temporary quarters. It is, in all

probability, an isolated painting and not a page from an enormous book like the illustrations to the Hamza-Name. It is therefore impossible to

calculate the original size, but it is interesting to note that the House of Timur was almost a

square picture. The proportions of the present

painting may well have been similar. At present these are the only two relics of a class of pic tures which may have been numerous.

Basil Gray

FUNDE VON GUSSFORMEN FUR KUFISCHE

MUNZEN UND MEDAILLEN

Im Jahr 1933 kaufte ich bei einem Antiqui tatenhandler in Teheran eine rektangulare griine

Schieferplatte, die als Gussform fiir ein paar kleine Medaillen mit runder Ose and kufischen Inschriften abgesehen war. An jeder ihrer Breit

seiten befindet sich ein kleines eingeritztes Me daillon oder eine munzenahnliche Figur, zu

welcher eine Gussrinne fuhrt (L. 9.4 cm., Br. 4

cm., Dicke 1.5 cm., Fig. 1 a, b und 2 a, b).

Diese Gussform ist zweifellos in Persien ge funden worden, aber Fundort und die Fundum stiinde sind unbekannt. Sie hat ein besonderes

Interesse wegen der allgemeinen Ahnlichkeit

der Medaillons mit kufischen Miinzen von c. 900 und 1000 n. Chr. Es ist mittierweile schwer zu

sagen zu welchem Zweck die Medaillons her

gestellt wurden. Es handelt sich hier offenbar nicht um eine Munzenfalschung, wie man an

fangs zu glauben geneight ware. Vermutlich

beabsichtigte man eine Massenherstellung von

billigen Hangeschmucksachen, die man in der Art wie die durchbohrten Munzen, aber beque mer als diese an Hals-, Stirn- und Ohrschmuck

sachen hangen konnte. Man hat sich aber mehr

um das schone Aussehen der Inschrift als um

deren Bedeutung gekummert. Die eine Medaii lonsseite (Fig. 2 b) zeigt in der Mitte die Worte: "Allah ildh Allah Allah ... ildh Allah" also der

Name Gottes, der immer wieder wiederholt wird,

aber die aussere umschrift ergibt keinen Sinn.

Die andere Medailloninschrift konnte auch nicht mit voller Bestimmtheit iibersetzt werden. Ich verdanke den Professoren A. Moberg und

H. Nyberg diese Aufklarungen (diese Gussform befindet sich jetzt in Statens Historiska Mu

seum, Stockholm, Inv. No. 21456). Man kann sich wohl denken, dass diese

durch den Namen Gottes mit Amulettkraft ver sehenen Schmucksachen fiir weniger Leskundige abgesehen waren, z.B. fiir Nomadenfrauen auf

dem Lande und an den ausseren Landes gren

zen, man will aber nicht gerne glauben, dass

der offenbar schriftkundige Ritzer nichts mit den iibrigen Wort en gemeint hat. Konnte man

sich moglicherweise denken, dass die arabische Schrift hier fiir eine fremde Sprache adaptiert wurde, beispielsweise fiir eine kaukasische?

In der formaligen Archaologischen Gesell schaft in St. Petersburg wurde unter No. 225 eine Gussform in Schiefer (?) verwahrt zur

herstellung von munzen ahnlichen Zeichen5 wahrscheinlich aus dem Kaukasus stammend

(Fig. 3). Sowohl von dieser als auch von mehre

ren anderen Gussformen aus Russland habe ich

Zeichnungen gemacht, leider nicht so exakte

dass man entscheiden kann ob wirkliche ara

bische Schriftzeichen vorkommen. Eine Guss

form aus fettem Speckstein ist in der Ermitage in Leningrad verwahrt. Diese wurde in Nevel,



Fig. i Processional Scene, Mughal School, About 1585 a.d. London University, Herringham Collection




Fig. 2 Detail of Processional Scene




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A New Mughal Painting on Stuff